


Christmas Traditions

by Ninja_Librarian



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Background Shidge, Christmas!, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Modern AU, Mostly Fluff, Mutal Pining, lots and lots and lots of pining, with a touch of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninja_Librarian/pseuds/Ninja_Librarian
Summary: Allura loves Christmas and all of her family's traditions that come with the holiday. Keith is apathetic and has no traditions to call his own, and is usually alone anyway. Allura is appalled to learn this, and vows to help Keith find a Christmas tradition in the one week they had until Christmas.Perhaps, somewhere along the way, they'll both confess their feelings for each other...





	1. One Week Until Christmas...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Empress_Of_Edenia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empress_Of_Edenia/gifts).



> For the ever awesome Empress_Of_Edenia! Merry Christmas, my dear friend!

Keith narrowed his eyes at his friend and roommate, lip curling into a sneer at the puppy dog eyes and pout. Though he had to wonder if the wateriness in Lance’s eyes was partly from the pain he was currently experiencing.

“No.”

“Please?” Lance begged.

“No! Ask one of your coworkers to switch with you!”

“Oh no, why didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait, I did and they all said they couldn’t!” Keith winced as Lance suddenly hissed in pain, pressing his hand against his jaw, eyes squeezed shut.

“Well that’s not my fault,” Keith said, rolling his eyes. “And it’s not my fault you managed to lose a filling biting into a candy cane. I mean, seriously, who just chomps down on a candy cane?”

“Says the heathen who bites into his ice cream like some sort of monster,” Lance snapped, gently massaging his jaw with his fingertips. “Keith, come on, I just need you to do this one favor for me and I swear I will never ask for one again!”

“You said that three weeks ago when you talked me into smuggling McDonalds into the library past Mrs. Booker,” Keith accused. “She’s been giving me dirty looks ever since, like she can still smell Big Macs and French fries on me.”

“I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t an absolute emergency! And think of the kids!” Lance pleaded.

“I don’t like kids.” Keith snapped.

“Oh, sure, that’s why you spent half the time at my house on Thanksgiving playing with Matchbox cars and Barbie dolls with my little cousins.”

“That’s different,” Keith insisted. “I know them and they know me! I know they’re not snot-nosed little brats!”

“It’s only for a few hours, and you’ll get paid. I just can’t let Allura down…”

That made Keith jolt.

“Allura?” He repeated, trying to keep his voice even and casual.

He cursed as he saw a smirk flicker across Lance’s face. Crap, he had just given Lance an advantage and they both knew it…

“Yes, Allura,” Lance said. “She’s the Head Elf on duty today. It’ll be a lot of work for her to be an elf short…”

Keith squeezed his eyes shut and groaned.

Why had he given Lance that opening?

More importantly, why couldn’t he hide his crush for Allura from his so-called friends?

And that was how Keith ended up wearing a green and red striped Elf costume, complete with shoes that curled up at the toes with bells jingling and a green hat with a white pom-pom, trying to force himself to smile as he was surrounded by screaming children and impatient parents, with the third rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in an hour blaring from the mall sound system.

_Lance owes me big time,_ he thought as a woman with a soccer mom haircut demanded to know why her kids couldn’t go to the front of the line to see Santa, they had to get to the airport to pick up Grandma, why didn’t he get that? Did he hate Grandmas and children?

He was starting to seriously consider stabbing someone with a candy cane. Whether it was this lady or himself, he wasn’t sure yet.

“Ma’am,” Keith said through gritted teeth, starting to lose his patience as he tried to explain to her One. More. Time… “There have been children who have been waiting much longer, and—”

“I want to speak to your supervisor!” The lady yelled at him.

“Excuse me, that would be me,” Allura said, stepping in between Keith and the angry lady. “Thank you, Keith, why don’t you go back to helping Mary pass out candy canes?” She then turned to the lady and flashed her largest, cheeriest smile and said, “Now, what seems to be the problem?”

Keith sulked away, glancing over his shoulder as he watched the lady storm away with her two kids—who were both more interested in their phones, and didn’t necessarily look too upset over leaving before getting to take a photo with St. Nick.

He took a deep, calming breath and focused on Allura as she spoke to a few sympathetic-looking parents who were also in line. Something was said that made her laugh, and Keith felt a dorky grin spread over his face.

Okay, this was a little bit worth it…

He wasn’t sure how anyone could make a bright green dress edged with eye-popping red and red-and-white striped tights work, especially with the matching red and green hat. But Allura… She did.

Quiznak, she was cute…

Keith had known he had liked the dark skinned, British ex-pat girl the moment she took a seat beside him in Psychology 101 freshman year, in all her pastel pink and glittery eye-shadow glory, her high ponytail full of dyed white hair bobbing as she sat down.

He knew he had a crush a few weeks later as he watched her tackle their friend Shiro to the ground during a “friendly” game of intermural football and silently wished that had been him she had pinned face-down in the mud. 

So, basically, he had spent the last two years pining over her and generally being emotionally constipated (Lance and Pidge’s words, not his) because feelings are hard…

He had been passing out candy canes for fifteen minutes when he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to see Allura standing there.

“Ready for a lunch break?” She asked.

“I could eat,” Keith admitted. Allura nodded.

“Let me grab my purse, and we’ll take thirty,” She said.

Keith felt his cheeks heat as she walked away. They were going to get lunch… together…

Allura was back in a moment, along with a new elf who took over for Keith. Soon, the two were walking away from the line for Santa and the chaos that was there and headed for the food court.

“Thank you for covering for Lance,” Allura said.

“No problem,” Keith said. “I was happy to.”

Why was he imagining Lance, Pidge, Shiro _and_ Hunk all giving him the same identical ‘were you now?’ look?

“So, er, how’d it go with the mom from hell?” Keith asked.

“Oh, she just said that she’d go see the Santa at the mall across town,” Allura said with a shrug. “No big loss.”

“Yeah, but I can’t quite figure out why it was such a big deal,” Keith said, sticking his hands in the pockets of the jacket he put on over his elf costume. “Her kids weren’t even interested, and they both looked to be in high school to top it off. Maybe they don’t even believe in Santa anymore, unlike the littler kids their mom wanted to cut in front of.”

“Well,” Allura said after a moment of thought. “I think, perhaps, it meant more to her than the kids. It is probably a family tradition to get a photo with Santa for them. I can understand that; traditions are important, especially at Christmas.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith said, tilting his head slightly at her. “You have a lot of Christmas traditions?”

“Oh, yes!” Allura said, her entire face brightening up. “I love them. Getting a tree and making garlands and strings of popcorn, singing carols, hanging up Christmas lights and getting out my grandmother’s Nativity set, and all the food…” Her smile became a little sad. “I love the traditions… My mother… Well, she died when I was eight years old, but my father, Coran and I made sure to keep all of her traditions. To keep her spirit alive with us each Christmas.”

“Huh, that’s nice,” Keith said, feeling his heart sink a little.

“What about you?” Allura asked. “What are your Christmas traditions?”

“I, uh, I don’t have any,” Keith admitted, very focused on the scuffed tiles in front of him.

“What?” Allura exclaimed, voice full of horror. “You don’t?”

“Yeah, well,” Keith shrugged. “My mom died when I was too little to remember her, or any Christmas traditions she may have started. And my Dad was depressed and hated Christmas after that, I guess because it either reminded him of her or he just didn’t care about the holiday that much to begin with. And then he disappeared and social services took me, so it’s hard to start many traditions in foster care and group homes…”

Keith cut himself off. He didn’t know how to explain to Allura that Christmas was hard for him. He was always invited to participate in the traditions of the foster families he stayed with, and as fun as they were he always knew he wouldn’t participate in them the following year. There was just the feeling that he was an interloper, an observer, in the holiday life of an average, real family. It was the same at the group homes; the activities were fun, there was always gifts and cookies, but there was never the guarantee that he’d share those things with the same people the following year. Staff changed, a different church provided the Christmas dinner, there were new kids or the kids he knew had been adopted or were in a foster home that year. Nothing had been consistent.

The only consistent thing about Christmas Day for the last few years was that he had spent the holiday alone, despite invitations from his friends to spend the day with them and their families. Though he accepted the invitations to go to Shiro’s house, or Hunk’s house, or Lance’s house for Thanksgiving, he just couldn’t with Christmas. Not when each family had their own traditions and celebrations, not when he just knew he’d go back to that “I don’t fit in here, this isn’t where I belong” feeling.

No, Christmas was usually best spent on his own, in the apartment with the sparse decorations courtesy of Hunk and Lance, usually eating Chinese take-out and playing video games, binge-watching _Finding Bigfoot_ and other cryptid shows, or reading. He didn’t mind being lonely. Or, at least, that’s what he told himself.

It was just how it was and how he was.

“So, yeah. No traditions for me.” He said.

He hardly expected Allura to whirl in front of him and grab him by the shoulders, making him look up at her frown.

“Keith,” She said, and Keith blinked. He knew that tone in her voice. Her “I’m determined and you better not get in my way” voice. “This is… This is not right! And we’re going to fix it!”

“Uh, we are?” Keith asked, brow furrowing.

“Yes,” Allura said, putting her hands on her hips. “There is one week until Christmas, and in that week, you and I are going to find and establish a Christmas tradition for you!”

“We are?” Keith repeated, now feeling even more confused.

“Yes!” Allura said again, nodding her head. Her eyes suddenly gleamed and she grabbed Keith by the wrist. “Starting now!”

Keith was suddenly dragged towards the Hallmark store. “Allura, look, it’s okay, you don’t have to—”

“No, I do,” Allura said. “This is a season of joy and giving, and quiznak it, Keith, I am going to give you joy by finding you a tradition of your own!”

“How does the Hallmark store help?” Keith asked as she pulled in inside. He glanced around at all of the décor and the racks of cards and plush toys. Sure, it was Christmas-y, but he wasn’t seeing whatever Allura was.

Allura’s eyes glittered again and her smile brightened. “Come here, I’ll show you.” She said, pulling him towards a display.

Keith’s eyes widened at the display of ornaments in their boxes. “Whoa. That’s a lot.”

“There’s a lot to choose from,” Allura said. “One of the traditions Coran brought into our family was that, every year, we all pick out a new ornament to add to the tree.”

“But I don’t have a tree,” Keith told her.

“You live with Lance, who I think sometimes would be one of Santa’s elves for free and starts blasting Christmas music the week before Thanksgiving, how does your apartment not have a tree?” Allura asked, frowning.

“Doesn’t make sense to,” Keith shrugged. “Lance spends most of winter break hanging out at his parents’ house, and so does Hunk, so they do trees with their families. Plus usually by this point of the year we’ve all been too busy between work and finals to do something like that.”

“Well, we’ll fix that issue later, then,” Allura said, waving her hand slightly. “But, for now, pick an ornament.”

Pick an ornament. His first ornament. He’d never had his own ornament before… Or maybe he did when he was a baby, but who knew what happened to it.

This wasn’t an easy task, and he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all the choices in front of him. There was Mickey Mouse, _Star Wars_ characters, Barbie dolls, Disney Princesses, superheroes, cars, trains, angels, snowmen, Snoopy, and much, much more...

Then he chuckled slightly and grinned.

“This one,” He said, picking up a box, smiling at the picture of Santa Claus trying to put a large hippopotamus into a gift box.

“Aw, that’s cute!” Allura squealed, grinning. “Let me guess, you want a hippopotamus for Christmas, Keith?”

“I like hippos,” Keith admitted. “Don’t know why, just always have.”

“Then this is perfect!” Allura declared.

When they got up to the front counter, Keith started to pull out his wallet to pay for the ornament, but Allura gently swatted at his hand.

“I’m buying it,” She informed him. “This was my idea, and it’s your very first ornament, so you shouldn’t have to pay for it.”

“Allura, no,” Keith protested, but he had barely gotten the cash out of his wallet when Allura had swiped her card, looking very pleased at Keith’s expression. The cashier chuckled.

“You two are cute,” She said as she put the ornament in a bag. “Let me guess, this is your first Christmas together?”

Both Keith and Allura froze at that and began stammering out at the same time:

“We’re just friends…”

“Nope, we’re not together…”

“Oh,” The cashier said, blushing slightly. “Sorry for assuming.”

Keith knew his cheeks were red, too, as they thanked her and walked out of the store together.

God, he wished she had been right…

“So, uh,” Keith said. “Thanks. For the ornament. And the new tradition, I guess.”

“You’re welcome,” Allura said. “But, we’re only just beginning.”

“What do you mean by that?” Keith asked.

“I mean,” Allura said, giving him another grand, glorious smile. “We still have to get you a tree. Among other things. By the time Christmas morning comes, you’re going to have many traditions to choose from.”

In other words, Keith realized, he was going to be full of Christmas cheer whether he liked it or not…


	2. Six Days Until Christmas...

“Uh, what’s all this?” Keith asked as Allura entered his apartment with a large cardboard box in her arms.

“Supplies for the tree!” Allura explained as she set down the box on the coffee table before taking off her pink jacket. “I’ve got paper, tape and scissors to make a garland, bags of popcorn and cranberries for stringing… Oh, and a tree stand!”

“Is that what this is?” Keith asked, holding a large plastic… thing.

“Yes!” Allura said, taking out other things out of the box, including boxes of lights. “And we can get you a tree skirt to go with it.”

“Does the tree require other clothing?” Keith asked, feeling confused. “At least a shirt?”

Allura laughed at that. “A tree skirt goes around the tree stand, so it’s not seen.”

“But anyone who sees the tree knows that there’s a stand there,” Keith pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest. “So why bother hiding it?”

“It makes it look pretty,” Allura said. “Oh, and, if you’re not sick of them already…”

She pulled out a box of candy canes, grinning. Though they didn’t look like the candy canes they were passing out yesterday…

“These are all red,” Keith said, taking the box from her.

“They’re cherry flavored instead of peppermint,” Allura explained. “I know red is your favorite color.”

Keith felt his cheeks heat slightly; it was true that red is his favorite color, but he didn’t know Allura remembered that fact when it came out at a random study session in freshman year.

“Thanks,” He said. “I’ve never had a cherry flavored candy cane before. I didn’t even know that they made them in different flavors and colors.”

“You can find them in just about any color nowadays,” Allura said. “Well, sometimes you have to order them off the internet to get really specific, but these I found at Wal-Mart.”

“You braved Wal-Mart six days before Christmas, for me?” Keith said, grinning at her slightly. “Allura, I’m touched.”

Was it his imagination, or was she blushing as she grabbed a cloth tape-measure—of all things—out of the box.

“It was nothing,” She insisted as she unrolled the tape-measure with a flick of her wrist. “Alright, we need to figure out where to put the tree and how high the ceilings are, so we don’t get too big of a tree.”

They moved some furniture around, putting the tree stand in the corner near the television where a potted plant—a housewarming gift from Shay—had somehow not died in the two and a half years Keith had been living in the apartment with Lance and Hunk (when he commented on this and credited it to Hunk diligently watering it twice a week, Allura didn’t have the heart to tell him that the leaves were made of silk and plastic). The lights could easily be plugged into the power strip that gave life to the television and DVD player there, as well as meant that there was little furniture to move. They measured from ceiling to floor and calculated how tall of a tree they would be looking for.

“Ready to go get your tree?” Allura asked, grabbing her jacket.

“Yeah,” Keith said, grabbing his own black jacket along with a red beanie and his fingerless black gloves. “So, uh, how does this work? Do we just go into a forest and cut down a tree?”

“Oh, no,” Allura said, adjusting her gloves. “We’ll go to a tree farm and cut one down there. The tree farms are both local businesses and environmentally beneficial, because they plant more trees after the season is over. A win-win all around.”

“Will they cut one down for us?” Keith asked, grabbing his house keys off the table beside the door.

“The place I had in mind gives us a saw to cut down trees on our own,” Allura said.

For some reason, she saw that Keith seemed to really like that idea.

“I’ve always wanted to use a saw!” He said. “Let’s go!”

*****

“Oh.” Keith said, looking slightly disappointed at the small hand saws that the tree farm employees were handing out to customers.

“Oh?” Allura repeated, frowning slightly. “Why ‘oh’?”

“It’s fine,” Keith insisted, suddenly really interested in the display of wreaths along the wall of the store that served as the gateway from the parking lot to the rows of trees.

Allura’s frown deepened. “Keith. Were you expecting a chain-saw?”

“Maybe…”

“That… That would kind of defeat the purpose of a nice, tranquil visit to the tree farm to get a Christmas tree…”

“Yeah, but it’d be a lot more fun.” Keith argued.

“How would you know? You said you’ve never done this before,” Allura pointed out as they stepped back out into cold, where there were rows of trees just waiting to be cut and lines of lights hanging above them, temporarily useless in the late afternoon sunlight.

“Have you ever watched those YouTube videos of people using chain-saws to make wooden sculptures before?” Keith asked. “That looks fun…”

“Keith, we are getting a Christmas tree. We’ll try chain-saw sculpting as a tradition next year, how about that?” Allura suggested.

“Is that such a thing?”

“You know what, Keith, we’ll make it a thing. Next year, when we have more time to prepare.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Keith said, twisting slightly to avoid getting run into by some giggling children who were clamoring for hot chocolate as their parents dragged the tree behind them on a low, flat wagon. “So, uh, haven’t you already done most of this Christmas tradition stuff with your dads?”

“We did earlier in the month, yes,” Allura said. “Right now we’re at a bit of a stand-still, because most of our traditions take place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Besides, currently they’re both in New Zealand. Coran’s great-aunt’s boyfriend’s nephew’s daughter was getting married, and they were invited. It was during finals week, so I couldn’t go. But Coran hasn’t seen his family for quite a number of years now, so they thought it would be good to visit for a while. They’ll be flying back in on Christmas Eve, though.”

“That’s good,” Keith said, nodding vaguely as he looked around at the trees. “Alright, so how does this work? How do you know you have found the right tree?”

“Well, what do you have in mind when you think of a Christmas tree?” Allura asked. “Is it tall and skinny like that one over there? Or short and stubby like that one behind the guy in the orange parka? More cone shaped? Fir or spruce or pine?”

“Uh, really ‘tree’ is the only thing that comes to mind,” Keith admitted, tucking his hands in his jacket pockets. His gloves were purely for aesthetic, riding his motorcycle, and keeping up his so-called ‘bad boy’ image, but they did nothing to keep his hands actually warm. “To be honest, I don’t even think I’ve seen a real Christmas tree before. Only the fake ones.”

“A tragedy in and of itself,” Allura sighed. “Let’s just wander, and you’ll know when it’s the right one.”

“Okay,” Keith said. “Sounds vague, but okay.”

“Well, you picked out an ornament yesterday, knowing exactly which one was perfect, didn’t you? Just apply the same skills with a tree. You’ll just _feel_ when it’s right.”

“Allura, are you telling me to use the Force?”

“I’m telling you to go bond with Mother Nature until Mother Nature bonds with you.”

“Yep, that was definitely Allura-speak for ‘Use the Force, Keith’.”

Allura rolled her eyes, then grinned mischievously. She tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Tag, you’re it!”

Keith blinked in surprise, and could only watch as Allura took off, giggling. He grinned. “I’m going to get you!” He called after her, running down the rows of trees.

Allura squealed as Keith’s hand caught her elbow. “You’re it!” He declared, then immediately turned on his heel, laughing as Allura turned to chase after him.

They dodged families with kids of all ages and employees, elderly couples and young newly wedded ones, dogs and groups of friends. They tagged each other back and forth a few times, chasing each other through the trees and jumping over stumps and branches as the sun began to set. 

Keith ducked behind a tree, trying to contain his giggles and not give away his location and regain his breath. His face hurt from smiling so wide. Carefully, he moved to peek out and see if he could spot Allura…

Arms wrapped around his waist and a panting, proud voice exclaimed: “Got you!”

Keith jumped slightly, but he started laughing again as he turned to Allura, their faces flush from the cold and the running. She laughed as she leaned against him.

“Truce?” She asked.

“Truce,” Keith said, nodding, wrapping his arm around her waist to keep himself upright. He looked at the tree behind him and grinned. “Hey, ‘lura?”

“Hmm?” Allura hummed faintly.

Keith grinned down at her and put one hand on the tree. “I think we found the perfect tree.”

An hour and a half later, the tree was cut, wrapped, paid for, tightly secured to the roof of Allura’s car and in the tree stand in Keith’s apartment.

“We did it!” Allura said, flopping onto Keith’s couch, grinning proudly at the tree in the stand.

“Yep,” Keith said, sitting on the couch beside her, also grinning. “Now to decorate it, right?”

“Yes!” Allura said, sitting up slightly to pull over her box from earlier. “So, paper chain garlands, and popcorn and cranberries, and candy-canes, and your ornament and—”

She cut herself off at the sound of chattering and branches shaking. Her eyes went wide as she and Keith both looked over at the tree which, to their horror, suddenly began shaking in the stand.

“Oh, quiznak…” Keith and Allura whispered in horrified tandem.

Allura screamed as something black and fluffy came flying out of the tree, screeching as it flew around.

“It’s a bat!” Keith exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

“We’ve got to get him out!” Allura said, stating the obvious, looking around frantically. She dashed towards the window, throwing it open. “Here, batty, batty, batty! Come out the window and go join your little bat friends!” She called in what she hoped was a soothing voice that didn’t convey the panic she felt.

“Hey, Batman! Robin is looking for you!” Keith yelled, throwing his arms in the air, trying to shoo the bat, but that didn’t seem to be working. Then he ran to the kitchen, coming back wielding a broom. This seemed to terrify the bat more, because it started screeching. “Come on, shoo!”

“Do you have fruit? Bats eat fruit, right?” Allura said, running towards the kitchen and reappearing with a bowl full of fruit. She grabbed an apple and held it in front of the window. “Here, bat! Look, fruit!”

The bat was not impressed with her offering.

“Oh, come on!” Allura groaned in exasperation. “Look how yummy it is! See!”

To prove her point, she took a big bite of the apple…

Only to spit it out in disgust, gagging.

“Ugh!” Allura grunted, rubbing her tongue against the sleeve of her sweater. “Keith, you need to start buying organic if that’s what all those chemicals do to this fruit…”

“Er,” Keith froze, broom still in the air, bat still screeching. “Um, all the fruit in that bowl is made of wax…”

“Keith, what the quiznak?” Allura screeched at him.

“Look, I bought a bunch of wax fruit to get Shiro off my back about not having healthy food, okay?” Keith said sheepishly.

“Shiro’s girlfriend lives off of peanut butter and Red Bull!” Allura yelled, waving the wax apple in the air wildly. “He should start with Pidge’s eating habits, not yours!”

“Hey, look, I honestly get why he started with me, not her,” Keith said, broom still above his head. “I mean, changing Pidge’s eating habits is pretty much Boss Level… It took him three months to get her to go to bed early on a regular basis, and she relapsed within a week.”

“True…” Allura admitted. She shook her head. “Never mind, we have to get this bat out! Do you have any real fruit?”

“Uh, maybe,” Keith said, lowering the broom for the first time. Then he frowned and looked up. “Um, where’d it go?”

Looking up at the ceiling cautiously, Allura stepped over to Keith. Soon they were back to back, Keith armed with the broom and Allura with the bowl of fake fruit, both on edge with pounding hearts.

“Do you think it flew out the window?” Allura whispered.

“Dunno,” Keith whispered back. “But I don’t—”

A screeching sound made them both jump and yell as the bat dive-bombed them. Keith weaved the broom around wildly in front of them while Allura lobbed fake-fruit at the bat. The bat dodged both fruit and broom, and went out the window. Keith and Allura ran over, working together to slam the window shut, falling to their knees on the floor.

They both sat on the ground panting for a moment, turning to lean against the wall.

“’Lura,” Keith panted out. “No offense… But I definitely don’t want to make that a yearly thing.”

They met each other’s eyes, then both started snickering until they were laughing so hard they were practically crying and their stomachs ached.

“Let’s just hope he didn’t have any friends,” Allura said, wiping her eyes, giggling. “I apologize, I didn’t think getting a Christmas tree would be this exciting of an adventure…”

“It was a fun one,” Keith admitted. “You know. Minus the bat.”

“Minus the bat.” Allura agreed. She took a deep breath, then hauled herself to her feet, using the window ledge. “Ready to actually trim your tree, or are you traumatized?”

“I think I need some nice, calming garland-making and popcorn-stringing,” Keith said, accepting Allura’s offered hand. “I’ll order a pizza so we’re not tempted to eat all the popcorn, too.”

“Sounds good,” Allura said, turning on the television, flipping through the stations until she found one. “Ooh, there’s a marathon of all those old Rankin-Bass movies!”

“The what now?” Keith said, pausing in scrolling through his contacts for the local pizza place.

“You know, like _Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer_ and _Frosty the Snowman_ and _Santa Claus is Coming to Town_ ,” Allura said. “This will definitely put us in the Christmas spirit!”

“Alright, you’re the Christmas expert here,” Keith said. “You want your usual toppings?”

“Yes, please,” Allura said.

“You know,” Keith said sometime later, when there was an empty pizza box on the table and a paper garland and long string of popcorn laying over their laps, as Rudolph led Santa’s sleigh through the fog. “Now I’m curious. What do you have on the agenda for tomorrow?”

“Well, for that,” Allura said, grinning. “I’m bringing in reinforcements.”


	3. Five Days Until Christmas...

“We’re going to kick your butt and build the best quiznaking gingerbread house you’ve ever seen!” Pidge declared as Keith opened the door. Keith arched an eyebrow at the short young woman and then glanced up her tall boyfriend who gave him a look that said ‘I apologize on behalf of my small bird’.

“Pidge,” Shiro said patiently, putting his hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “It’s not a competition.”

“It’s totally a competition, Shiro!” Lance yelled from inside the apartment, where he was helping Allura and Shay assemble the houses.

“Team Shidge is in the house!” Pidge declared as she stepped inside

Keith froze and quickly glanced into the kitchen, where the house assemblers paused and looked mildly panicked.

“Um, Shidge?” Allura asked cautiously. It was the term their friend group had used to describe Shiro and Pidge in private, particularly when they had all been trying to get the two together but now used the term to refer to Shiro and Pidge collectively.

As far as they knew, neither one of them knew about this.

“Yeah, Shidge,” Shiro said as he started to unload candy from the grocery bags that he had carried in. “A combination of our nicknames, Shiro and Pidge.”

“We couldn’t agree on a team name, so we decided to just smoosh our names together,” Pidge said, pulling up a chair and sitting in it backwards. “Cool, huh?”

“Yes, it’s great,” Shay said shakily. “Um, Pidge, why don’t you get the Skype set up and I’ll text Hunk to let him know you’re about to open up the connection?”

“Sure!” Pidge said, pulling out her laptop. “I’m glad Hunk got to go home to see his family in Samoa this year, but I wish he was here with us.”

“Me, too,” Shay said with a sigh.

“All Shay wants for Christmas,” Lance said in a sing-song voice. “Is Hunk.”

“I won’t deny it,” Shay said with a shrug. She brightened as her phone dinged. “Okay, Hunk’s ready when we are!”

Pidge grinned and set the laptop up in a good place. Within seconds, Hunk was on the screen, waving.

“Hey guys!” He said. “I miss you all so much!”

“We miss you, too,” Shiro said. “You having fun, though?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s great! My little cousins got so big, and even though it’s summer here everyone is so excited about Christmas!” Hunk said. “How’s everything going back on the home front?”

They all chatted for a few minutes about various things. Lance insisted Hunk be shown the tree, and he was impressed for a number of reasons. Finally, the houses were declared ready to decorate and for Hunk to judge. There were three “teams”: Shiro and Pidge, Shay and Lance, and Keith and Allura. While the teams decorated, Hunk was planning on making a gingerbread house as a surprise for his younger cousins.

“On your marks!” Hunk said dramatically. “Get set! Decorate!” 

Each team had their own strategy.

Shiro and Pidge were going for big and grand; if their house was real, it would have received one heck of an electricity bill from all the ‘lights’ and decorations.

Shay and Lance were going for traditional; if their house was real, it would be a cozy little cottage occupied by a grandma, a few cats, and a plate of fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies with a hot cup of cocoa.

As for Keith and Allura, well…

“Keith, the marshmallow snowman doesn’t look… well, like a snowman. It looks like… something else.”

“Duly noted. And… yeah. What if we add M&Ms for eyes?”

“Awesome. Here. I’m going to use more of the edible glitter on the house.”

“Don’t you mean sprinkles?”

“That’s exactly what I said.”

If their house was real, it was probably condemned.

The marshmallow snowman (or what they claimed was a snowman) had been given red M&M eyes and therefore looked slightly possessed. For some reason, they had simultaneously decided that they needed to put at least two of each type of candy on top of the roof, which was starting to cave in slightly. Gumdrops, mints and Sixlets were sliding down the walls and roof. The entire thing was coated in green sparkles which—instead of making it look like a Winter Wonderland—just made it look like a toxic waste dump.

But they were proud of it and were completely blind to all of its flaws.

“We did great,” Allura said, beaming.

“Yeah, we did,” Keith said, adjusting the snowman as it threatened to topple over. “We should have baked some gingerbread men to live in it. They would love this place.”

It was fortunate for all gingerbread men and women of the world that they had not been prepared for this house decorating spectacular.

“Alright, so I brought in two very knowledgeable, completely impartial judges,” Hunk said from over Skype. There was the sound of giggling from off screen, and Hunk said, “Come over here, you two!” Two small children—a girl and a boy—with dark hair and eyes joined Hunk on the screen, each taking a seat on his knee. Meet my cousins, Talia and Loto! Say hi!”

“Hi!” The kids chimed together, waving, and were greeted in return.

“We’re going to vote on your houses, and these two are also going to get ideas for the houses they’re going to decorate,” Hunk said.

Team Shidge presented first, and their house was oohed and aahed over as Pidge listed all of the features while Shiro proudly held the house up. They earned points for using Twizzlers and frosting to make a silhouette of Santa Claus on the side of the house.

Team Naughty and Nice—AKA Lance and Shay—went next, their design sweet and simple, but also creative. They earned points for creating little wreaths to hang above the door and on the sides of the house.

And then… there was Team Kallura…

Who were met with speechlessness and wide-eyed stares.

“Um, wow,” Hunk said after a moment. “You two, uh, you put in a lot of effort, didn’t you?”

As soon as he said that, the roof finished caving in.

Keith and Allura simply stared in dismay at the flop of the house, then looked up at each other.

“We were going to eat it anyway, right?” He asked.

“Yes, now it’s just a little easier to do that,” Allura said, carefully reaching in to tear off a gummi bear.

Team Shidge won the competition and all the bragging rights that came with it.

Hunk’s little cousins went to make their own gingerbread house with the knowledge of what happened if you got a little top-heavy.

Team Kallura’s gingerbread house was delicious, by the way.

“That was fun,” Keith said, picking through the debris to find his next piece to eat. He glanced at the snowman as one of the M&M eyes fell off. Yeah, it really did look like…

Maybe that should just go in the trash…

“So are you still planning on forcing Keith to write a letter to Santa? Even though he’s a little, I don’t know, old for that?” Pidge asked Allura, her tongue poking out slightly as she took different pictures of Team Shidge’s gingerbread house from different angles using her phone.

“It’s the only way I can figure out what to get him for Christmas, Pidge. And you promised you’d help.” Allura said, leaning against the counter while watching Keith laugh at something Shiro said in the living room with the others.

Pidge paused, glancing up. “You know Christmas is, like, five days away, right? Amazon Prime can work wonders, Allura, but even that has its limits.”

“I know, but I’m going to try,” Allura said. Her shoulders relaxed some as she smiled faintly. “Is it wrong to want to try to make your crush happy for Christmas? I mean, he gets a present when we do our White Elephant exchange at New Year’s, but that’s not really the same to some extent. I want this to be more personal…”

Pidge narrowed her eyes; prior to her and Shiro getting together, both Keith and Allura were the most vocal and encouraging of the two to confess their feelings and start dating. Unfortunately, they were horrible at taking their own advice.

“Or you could just ask him, like a normal person,” Pidge pointed out. “Or, better yet, just get him a knife.”

“But I want to surprise him!” Allura insisted. “Now, all you have to do is sit beside him and look over his shoulder, then tell me later what he wants, okay?”

“Whatever,” Pidge said, rolling her eyes and sticking her phone in her pocket.

“Great!” Allura said, snatching up the pile of paper and pens. She entered the living room and proclaimed in a sing-song voice, “Time to write letters to Father Christmas!”

“Aren’t we a little old to—” Lance started to say, but Keith interrupted loudly.

“Lance, I just remembered, the landlord left us a note and I forgot to show it to you! It’s in the kitchen!”

“Oh, you can show it to him after we write letters!” Allura insisted.

“Won’t take but a moment, and I’ll forget later,” Keith insisted, already dragging Lance into the kitchen.

“Uh, Keith, you al—” Lance’s eyes went wide as Keith grabbed him by the biceps and looked at him with wide eyes.

“You owe me a favor,” Keith whispered.

“And you’re creeping me out.”

“You owe me a favor,” Keith repeated. “And I’m cashing in on it now. I need you to sit beside Allura and look over her shoulder and tell me what she writes in her letter to Santa!”

“Why do you need me to do that?” Lance said, feeling confused.

“So I know what to get her for Christmas!” Keith said, shaking Lance slightly. “Keep up!”

“I feel like I’m five steps behind,” Lance admitted. 

Keith rolled his eyes and huffed slightly. “Look, aside from the fact that I’ve had a crush on Allura for the last three years, I want to get her something as a way to thank her for trying to find me a tradition and stuff. I just… I need you to help me out, because I haven’t got the slightest idea.”

“You could just ask her? Like a normal person?”

“Will you help me or not?” Keith demanded, shaking Lance again.

Lance rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah, man, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks,” Keith said, releasing Lance. They reentered the living room and everyone took a seat around the coffee table.

Dutifully, Lance took a seat beside Allura.

Across the table, Pidge took a seat beside Keith.

“It’s been a long time since I wrote a letter to Santa,” Shay said as they began to write.

“Same,” Pidge said. “My parents used to do correspondence ‘from’ Santa and Mrs. Claus for us. Matt and I would send a letter, we’d get one back from the North Pole. Sometimes we’d do multiple letters throughout December.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Allura said.

“It was fun,” Pidge said. “Then we got old enough to realize that the handwriting matched Mom and Dad’s. We didn’t tell them for two years that we had figured it out because we loved it so much and so did Mom and Dad.” She chuckled. “Funny thing was, it took us another year before we learned the truth about Santa.”

“Oh, shush, none of that non-believer stuff,” Lance said, waving his hand dramatically in her direction. “Christmas is a time for magic and suspension of belief!”

“Yeah, like when you watch a Hallmark movie and you know it’s going to end well with a happily-ever-after and the guy and girl are going to get together, but you still suspend belief to worry about if they’re going to be able to save the town’s Christmas festival or win the bake-off or whatever,” Shiro said.

“Since when are you so knowledgeable about Hallmark Christmas movies?” Keith asked.

Pidge huffed slightly. “Since the TV is permanently stuck on that station at my house, and my mom has forced us to watch nearly every single movie ever made.”

Allura grinned slightly. “Ever heard of the Hallmark Christmas Drinking Game? It looks fun.”

“I saw that on Facebook, and it looks like a sure way to give yourself liver failure for Christmas,” Lance commented. “Not all of us have the same inhuman alcohol tolerance that you and Keith have, you know.”

“I don’t know, that almost sounds like a challenge,” Keith said, glancing over at Allura.

“Keith, I know what non-traditional, very-adult tradition we’re going to create this week,” Allura said, eyes gleaming.

“As long as you’re both aware that none of us are going to come over and take care of your hung-over butts, do whatever you want,” Shiro said.

At this point, Pidge and Lance both decided to do their duties in the name of friendship and snuck a peek at their neighbor’s letter.

Pidge seriously considered bashing someone’s head with a candy cane lawn ornament when she saw Keith’s letter.

_Dear Santa, first of all I don’t really know what to say since this is my first time writing. I don’t really know you, but I guess technically you know me? Which is kind of creepy, I guess. But, anyways, hi, how are you? Hope you’re doing well. I know I’m supposed to tell you what I want for Christmas, and at this point the only thing I really want can only come through magic so, here it is: I want Allura to like me in the way that I like her. But that’s most likely impossible, but I’m just going to throw that out there anyway. So, I guess, I don’t know. A knife would be nice. Or a mug. I could use a new mug. A mug would probably be better since my current knife collection makes people uncomfortable, which may be part of why the first thing I asked for is impossible. Or a dragon. That’s another not-quite-impossible thing, I guess._

Meanwhile, Lance read Allura’s letter.

_Dear Father Christmas, how are you? I hope this letter finds you well. I know I already sent you a letter this year, but I am sending another under the pretense of discovering what my crush would like for Christmas. Even though I’m worried that my feelings are unreciprocated, I still want to do something to make him happy. So, I guess, I don’t know, let me just write down things that might be nice to have but don’t necessarily need. A new dress (the sparklier the better). A new mug. Or maybe a dragon. (Though the dragon may be more obtainable than Keith…)_

Pidge and Lance both narrowed their eyes, then looked up to see the expression on the other’s face, realizing they had both been given the same task. Simultaneously, they rolled their eyes.

“Alright, done,” Shiro said, breaking the silence. “What should we do with them now?”

Allura signed her name with a flourish then looked up. She hummed slightly. “Hmm, no fireplace, that is a bit of an issue…”

“Do you leave your letters to Santa beside the fireplace?” Shay asked.

“Mmm, more or less,” Allura said with a shrug. She stood up. “When everyone is done, we’ll go outside.”

Everyone folded up their letters, bundled up, and went down to the patio with the grill behind the apartment building.

“Can I borrow your lighter, Keith?” Allura asked.

“Why do you carry a lighter? You don’t smoke,” Pidge asked, brow furrowed.

“Never know when you need one,” Keith said simply, watching as Allura lit the grill.

“Now what happens?” Shiro asked.

“We burn the letters,” Allura declared.

“We do what now?” Lance said, eyes wide. “What happened to sticking it in the nearest mailbox?”

“This is how we send the letters to Father Christmas in England,” Allura explained, tossing her letter onto the grill. “It’s best done in a fireplace, but this will do just as well. The important thing is that Father Christmas reads the smoke, and therefore reads the letters.” 

With that, everyone tossed the letters onto the grill, watching them shrivel and burn to a crisp.

“I like this tradition,” Keith said, hands in his pockets. “It involves setting stuff on fire. Also there’s a lack of bats that makes it even more enjoyable.”

“Cannot argue with that point,” Allura said, using a stick to poke at the letters slightly.

“Um, bats?” Shay asked.

While Keith explained, Allura pulled Pidge to the side.

“Well?” She demanded. “What does he want?”

Pidge narrowed her eyes slightly and said flatly, “You to reciprocate his feelings.”

Allura frowned, pouting slightly. “That’s not nice, Pidge. Now tell me what he really wrote.”

Pidge rolled her eyes. “A knife. Or a mug. Take your pick, Allura.”

She nodded, already now thinking hard. “Thank you, Pidge.”

“Anytime,” Pidge said, though Allura was too busy thinking about gift options to wonder how sincere that response was.

A while later, Keith and Lance were alone in their apartment, Keith sitting in Lance’s desk chair as he packed a few more things in an overnight bag.

“So?” Keith prodded. “What does Allura want for Christmas?”

Lance looked up at him for a long moment, then said, “For you to tell her that you’ve had a crush on her for years now.”

Keith scowled. “I knew I should have asked Shiro…”

Lance rolled his eyes. “A sparkly dress or a mug. That’s all I got to offer you, dude. Good luck with that.”

“Thanks,” Keith said, deep in thought.

At least now he could narrow down his options.


	4. Four Days Until Christmas...

“So what have you got planned today, Allura?” Keith asked as he hopped into her car.

“One of my favorites,” Allura said. “We’re going to give back to the community by volunteering at the local soup kitchen!”

It was not the way Keith had planned on spending the day and he wasn’t exactly a people person, but he enjoyed it a great deal. Much more than he originally thought he would. Sure, there had been dishes to scrub, but he even enjoyed that. Seeing people arrive hungry and leave fed with the promise of another meal was a good feeling. Plus he ended up sitting and chatting with a Veteran for nearly an hour.

“Good tradition?” Allura asked as they finished cleaning up from the lunch rush, both up to their elbows in dishes and soapy water.

“Awesome tradition,” Keith said. “Should do more of it.”

“Well, there’s one more way you can do that,” commented one of the ladies who regularly volunteered, who happened to be listening to Keith and Allura. “The community center down the street is hosting a holiday market tonight, and local artists and vendors are selling their wares and giving all the proceeds to this facility. It’s great if you still need to do some last minute shopping.”

Both Keith and Allura perked up at that.

Because they both had a gift to buy…

“Let’s go check it out,” Keith suggested nonchalantly.

“Oh, yes, good idea,” Allura nodded. They walked over to the community center, where the gym was lined with tables and booths full of jewelry, pottery, scarves, food and more.

“Oh, how could I have possibly forgotten!” Allura said dramatically, pressing her palm to her forehead. “I need to find a gift for my neighbor’s cat! You go wander on your own, Keith, I’ll meet up with you in a bit.”

“That’s fine,” Keith said. “Um, I’m going to go this way… I just remembered I need… Uh, yeah, see you in a bit!”

With that, they went in opposite directions, each on their own mission to find a gift.

Keith found the booth first, with a purple tablecloth and white banner that read ‘Hostili-Tea’ in big purple letters. The table was covered in small boxes, and surrounded by shelves full of mugs. A young Latina woman sat behind the table, flipping through a magazine, the nametag around her neck proclaiming that she was a presenter and her name was Acxa. She looked up when Keith approached.

“Hey,” She said, setting aside the magazine. “Welcome to Hostili-Tea. Or, at least, the mobile shop. All the mugs are hand-painted, microwave and dishwasher safe, and the designs range from mildly insulting to completely irreverent.”

Keith looked around at the mugs, amused by the designs and slogans. A white mug with blue raindrops that read ‘Tears of My Students’, one that read ‘Good Morning, I See My Assassins Failed’ in a fancy script, another that was just covered in swear words in multiple colors (“It’s a pun,” Acxa explained as Keith’s gaze lingered on it. “Colorful language.”), and one that made him laugh as it had a bear on it that proclaimed that ‘People In Sleeping Bags Are Like Soft Tacos’.

But his eyes widened and he grinned as he saw the most perfect mug…

He picked up the pastel pink mug with fancy gold calligraphy that read ‘I Do Not Spew Profanities. I Enunciate Them Clearly, Like A Quiznaking Lady’.

It was perfect for Allura, especially since the most frequently used word in her vocabulary was ‘quiznak’ and it’s variations, and she had no problem admitting that.

“I’ll take this one,” Keith said.

Five minutes later, he couldn’t stop grinning as Acxa handed him a plain bag with the bubble-wrapped mug inside. He had found the perfect gift for Allura…

Meanwhile, Allura wasn’t having any luck. There was not a single knife to be seen, nor had any of the mugs she had seen jumped out at her as ‘the one’.

And, worse, Keith was approaching.

“Hey,” He said. “Any luck?”

“None so far, but I’m only about halfway in,” She said with a sigh. “I’m going to continue on until I see all the booths.”

“Sounds good,” Keith said. “I’ll meet you at the front.”

Allura heaved a sigh as she watched him leave. If she didn’t find something here, she didn’t know what she was going to do…

Then she saw a booth with a purple tablecloth and white banner, filled with mugs…

She perused the mugs, snickering at the slogans like ‘I Didn’t Hit You, I High-Fived Your Face’ and ‘Silence is Golden, Duct-Tape is Silver’.

Then her eyes landed on a black mug with red lettering, that proclaimed ‘I Don’t Like Morning People. Or Mornings. Or People’.

She giggled slightly; that was definitely Keith, all right…

“I would like to purchase this,” Allura said, handing the mug to the Latina booth owner.

She couldn’t stop grinning as she headed back to the entryway, where Keith was waiting for her, scrolling through his phone with one hand, and a shopping bag hanging from the other. He grinned at her when he saw her, which made her heart pound slightly.

“Find what you were looking for?” He asked.

“I did,” She said, nodding. “And you?”

“Yep,” Keith said, gesturing to the bag.

Both left feeling pleased with themselves and their perfect purchases.

Little did either of them know, they already had exactly what the other really wanted all along…


	5. Three Days Until Christmas...

Allura threw open her front door, grinning at Keith. “Did you bring the goods?”

Keith grinned and lifted the brown paper bag in his hand. “Dark rum, and bourbon for when-slash-if we finish that off. And Fireball Whiskey for shots.”

“You’re a good man, Keith.” Allura said. “I’ve got the TV, snacks, and eggnog ready. We have ten minutes until the next movie starts. Let’s get mixing!”

“What are the rules of the game?” Keith asked as he unpacked his bag of goodies while Allura shook the carton of eggnog she brought out of the fridge.

“Take a shot if the movie stars Candace Cameron Bure or Lacey Chabert, finish the drink when the cynic is filled with the Christmas spirit or it’s snowing on Christmas Day,” Allura said as she poured the eggnog into a large punch bowl. “Rum, please.”

Keith opened the bottle and passed it to her, watching as she poured it in.

“Alright, so then we take a drink every time we encounter a Christmas movie cliché,” Allura said, grabbing a bowl of cream and bottle of vanilla extract, adding it to the punch bowl. “The main characters have Christmas-related names, there’s mistletoe, anytime there are jingle bells, deals with Santa, a big-city person is in the small town, that sort of thing. I’ve got the list on the coffee table if you want to take the whiskey and shot glasses in there.”

“Sounds good,” Keith said, grabbing said items. “Let’s get wasted on eggnog in the name of Christmas cheer.”

Though Keith had only once tried eggnog before as a kid and hated it, he found that he loved it when mixed with alcohol, cream and vanilla. It tasted especially good mixed with the remains of the Fireball on his tongue from taking a shot. Out of their friend group, Keith and Allura were the only two who would have even considered taking shots of Fireball, and frequently did so with straight faces and without the need to gulp down some water almost immediately after.

But, even though they each had fairly high alcohol tolerance levels, they both got very, very drunk on their eggnog.

Halfway through the third movie, Keith suddenly burst into tears as the main character’s golden retriever came on screen wearing reindeer antlers.

“He’s so cute!” Keith blubbered, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his sweater.

When Keith did get drunk, he was what his friends referred to as a ‘mood-swing drunk’. So he spent a solid minute crying over the cuteness of the antler-wearing dog, and then spent the next laughing hysterically for no reason other than the male lead was wearing a silly tie that lit up in the pattern of a Christmas tree.

Allura, on the other hand, simply got very loud when she was drunk. And her posh British accent dropped into a thick Cockney one instead.

Also, all of her emotions intensified. As did the amount of insults and profanity she used.

“OI YOU BLIND NUMPTY WOMAN!” Allura screamed at the television, leaping to her feet and throwing a handful of popcorn at the screen as the female lead walked away from the male lead towards her boyfriend, who clearly wasn’t the one she really loved. “YOU TURN YOUR ARSE AROUND RIGHT QUIZNAKING NOW AND GO BACK AND KISS THAT BLOKE, YOU LITTLE GIT!”

Keith, who was already beginning to tear up over the situation on the screen and for some reason thought Allura was angry at him, suddenly buried his face in one of the throw pillows on the couch, wailing, “I’M SORRY!”

At that Allura, stared down at Keith, almost in awe. Then she quickly sat back down on the couch and very tenderly started petting his hair, opened her mouth and: “QUIT YOUR QUIZNAKING BLUBBERING, YOU WALLY! THAT LITTLE TWIT WILL SOON COME TO HER SENSES AND TELL THE BLOKE SHE REALLY LOVES HIM, NOT THAT QUIZNAKING PRAT!”

Keith looked up at her, tear-filled eyes full of relief and a smile spreading across his face, like he could never have imagined the movie having that ending and was so happy to hear that it was going to be okay. Then his face crumpled and he exclaimed through tears, “MY NAME’S NOT WALLY!”

“I BLOODY KNOW THAT, KEITH!” Allura yelled, waving her glass of eggnog around, sloshing some of it onto the floor and her leggings. Even though the movie hadn’t reached the point where the criteria for finishing the drink could be met, but Allura gulped down what was left in her glass anyway, staring at the bottom of the glass, twirling it as the leftover liquid swirled around. Her lip curled and she seethed, “How could anyone be so stupid to not realize they have such a good thing, such a good person, right there in front of them?”

Keith rested his head on Allura’s shoulder wearily, sniffling slightly. “He’s at fault, too… Won’t tell her how he feels… Like an absolute idiot…”

“Agreed,” Allura huffed, setting down the glass.

“I mean, why can’t Nick just say ‘I really like you, Allura, will you go out with me?’,” Keith mumbled out, eyes fixated on the television screen.

Allura stiffened.

Did Keith just say…?

“Keith,” She whispered. Or tried to whisper. Drunk Allura whispering was a regular volume for everyone else. “The girl’s name is Holly.”

“That’s what I said,” Keith said, eyes closing.

“No,” Allura said, shaking her head. “You said ‘I really like you, Allura’.”

Even in his drunken state, Keith realized exactly what he’d done. And that she was right. His eyes flew open and he sat up, cheeks red from both embarrassment and the alcohol, staring at Allura as he scrambled to get away from her.

“I’m s-sorry,” He stuttered out. “I didn’t mean—”

“Keith,” She whispered, practically crawling on the couch to get closer to him, her nose to his. “Did you… Do you mean that? Do you like me?”

Keith clenched his jaw and nodded.

Allura sat back on her feet, looking stunned. Then, she smiled and began to huff out laughter.

Keith felt his heart break.

She was laughing at him, wasn’t she?

“Quiznak,” He groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Quiznak, I’m sorry, ‘Lura, I’ve ruined everything, I’m sorry…”

“Keith!” Allura exclaimed, grabbing him by the wrists, pulling his hands away from his face so that he could see her. “Keith…” She whispered, pressing her palm to his cheek.

Then, slowly, hesitantly, she pressed her lips to his. Keith blinked in surprise, eyes closing again as he wrapped his arms around her, the kiss deepening. He felt himself falling backwards against the couch, Allura falling on top of him, her hands in his hair, his hand slipping up the back of her sweater, resting on the small of her back.

All too soon, both panting slightly, cheeks flush, they opened their eyes and looked at each other. Allura smiled and gently booped Keith on the nose.

“I really like you, too, you… you…” She trailed off and kissed him again, this time just a peck on the forehead.

“How… how long?” Keith asked, still breathless.

“Freshman year,” She mumbled. “You just… you just smiled one day, and I realized I liked it when you smiled. Had already thought that you were hot, but in that moment you were just… just perfect. Wanted to keep making you smile forever and ever…”

“Huh,” Keith muttered. “Wow, you’re… You’re a lot more romantic than me, sorry ‘bout that…”

“Why?” Allura asked, running a finger along Keith’s collarbone. “How’d you know you liked me?”

“I watched you nail Shiro from behind and pin him face-down in the mud, and I wished it had been me,” Keith admitted sheepishly. “But if it sounds better, I thought you were cute the first moment I saw you.”

Allura laughed again, soft as she threaded her fingers in his hair. “How ‘bout I pin you to this couch and we make out a bit more?”

Keith grinned, brushing his thumb back and forth over Allura’s spine. “I like the sound of that.”

The movies played on well into the next morning, but the couch’s occupants did not spare a moment more on the television.


	6. Two Days Until Christmas...

Allura blinked her eyes open slowly, groaning slightly at the pounding headache. Ugh, it was such a bad headache, she could feel her pulse pounding in her ears.

Actually, just one ear. That was weird. Then there was the other weird sounds, people talking and… music? Who the quiznak was shaking jingle bells this early in the quiznaking morning in her quiznaking living room?

She shifted, pushing her elbow against the couch slightly in order to sit up.

The couch squirmed and groaned. And was also a bit squishier than usual.

That was really weird…

She blinked again, and turned her head, sucking in her breath slightly as she saw that she hadn’t been lying on her couch. She had been lying on Keith, who was lying on her couch.

Hmm, that explained why the pounding sound in her ear was now gone… It was Keith’s heartbeat she had been hearing.

_So it wasn’t a dream…_ Allura thought, brushing Keith’s bangs away carefully, smiling faintly.

Then her eyes widened, and her smile grew. 

“It wasn’t a dream…” She whispered, beginning to bounce slightly on the couch in a little happy dance. “It wasn’t a dream! Oooh…”

Allura’s little happy dance came to an end when her hang-over headache made it clear that it did not approve. She pressed her palm to her forehead and groaned slightly.

“Hgghnuhh…” Keith groaned, his eyes slowly opening. He blinked slightly and yawned, then winced. “Ugh… We played the Hallmark Movie Drinking Game and I think Hallmark won…”

“You think?” Allura said, grabbing the remote and turning off the television, which was still proudly presenting the movies in question. They both breathed a sigh of relief at the resulting silence.

Keith just grunted as he pushed himself up slightly. He was quiet for a moment, staring down at his feet. Then he tilted his head up at Allura. “So, uh, crazy question.”

“Potential crazy answer.”

“Touché… Did we, uh… Did we end up making out? Here? On your couch? Last night?”

“After you told me you liked me, and that I like you back, yes,” Allura said, nodding slightly. “Crazy enough of an answer for you?”

“Yep,” Keith said, popping the ‘p’ as he put his arms above his head and stretched. “I can’t believe it, though… All those times we’ve been drunk together before and I never said it, and then we get wasted on stupid eggnog watching stupid Hallmark movies, and it all just comes out.”

“Well, I’m certainly not complaining,” Allura said, shrugging slightly.

“Neither am I,” Keith said. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed slightly. “So.”

“So.” Allura repeated, heart pounding, and her mouth painfully dry.

The unanswered question hung in the air.

Where did they go from there?

“Um,” Keith said shyly. “Uh, today’s tradition… What did, what did you have planned?”

“It’s a surprise,” Allura said.

“Can you give me some sort of hint?” Keith asked.

“It’s something we can only do tonight, after dark,” Allura said. Then she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “Okay, that sounds sketchy, but I swear—”

“It’s perfect.”

Allura looked up at him, frowning slightly. “You don’t even know what it is.”

“No, it’s perfect, because if we have to wait until after dark…” Keith took a deep breath and met her eyes. “Um, Allura? Could you… Would you like…” He huffed slightly. “Quiznak, this is hard…” He squared his shoulders and started again, “Allura, I’d like to take you out to dinner tonight.”

“Like… like a date?” Allura asked.

“Exactly like a date,” Keith confirmed.

Allura smiled at him, reaching over to take his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. “I would love that very much…”

*****

Dinner had been perfect, at one of their favorite restaurants with their favorite dishes and lots of talking and laughing. Allura had been on plenty of first dates that were incredibly awkward, but this… This wasn’t one of them. 

They had been friends for so long, there was no awkwardness. They already knew each other so well, and now it just felt like they were taking things a step further into that friendship. A step that involved kissing and hand-holding and relief because thank the stars they felt the same way.

And it all felt so right, so perfect.

Keith had been the perfect—albeit awkward and nervous—gentleman, opening the doors for her and paying for the meal and pulling out her chair. Allura had spent two hours on the phone with Shay and Pidge constructing the perfect outfit for the occasion, which paid off at seeing Keith’s red cheeks and his compliments.

“Alright,” Keith said, as he pushed open the door, leading them away from the warmth of the restaurant and back out into the cold. “So, where are we headed to next?”

“Well,” Allura said, smiling. “It just so happens that you picked the perfect place for dinner, because where we’re going is just a few blocks down the street.”

Keith simply followed Allura’s directions, turning on the blinker with a bit of confusion as Allura said, “Pull in here.”

“The zoo?” Keith commented even as he made the turn. “But isn’t it closed?”

The fact that there were so many cars in the parking lot confused him even further.

What was going on?

“During December, the zoo does a special after-hours program with light displays,” Allura explained, fishing a piece of paper out of her purse. “Plus there are some of the animals that they let stay out a bit later than usual to partake in the fun.”

After finding a place to park and getting to the gate, Allura showed the lady behind the counter the piece of paper—which Keith realized were tickets bought online for the event.

It had been years since Keith was last at the zoo, probably on some field trip or other special outing that was only vague in his head. He had definitely never been at night, and he was amazed by all the lights, shaped like animals and snowflakes and candy canes.

“Let’s get some hot cocoa, then we’ll do the circuit,” Allura said, leading him over to a small vendor’s stand. Once they had their hot chocolate in hand, Keith offered his arm for Allura, which she gladly took, and they walked arm in arm past the lions, tigers, bears, elephants and the dozens of displays, sipping cocoa and pointing at the lights.

“Allura, this is so amazing…” Keith said, grinning at a lit up gingerbread house display that a family was posing in front of. “It’s so pretty…” His eyes suddenly widened as they passed a garden full of flowers made of lights. “Whoa…” He breathed.

Allura smiled, chuckling under her breath. Keith was filled with child-like wonder, which was cute and sweet. She didn’t want to tell him that, though, because she didn’t want him to feel embarrassed or hide his reactions. She was enjoying this side of Keith; she didn’t see it often, but she loved it and especially loved the smile that came with it.

Which was why she was especially pleased to note that there was one enclosure that was still open and lit up.

The lights were great, but seeing Keith’s face upon seeing a real-live hippopotamus swimming around in his tank was the best thing Allura had seen all night.

“We’ll have to come back in the daytime so you can see him better,” Allura said as they walked away from the enclosure, and finished the loop. When they got back near the entrance, they saw some strobe lights and heard music coming from the pavilion where the zookeepers did demonstrations.

“What’s going on over there?” Keith asked.

Allura pulled out the map and nodded. “Oh, it’s a dance party.”

“Sounds fun,” Keith said.

Allura grabbed his hand. “Let’s go check it out!”

The dance party was mostly filled with little kids, but a couple of adults and a very small handful of teens were also bopping around to “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.

However, both Keith and Allura had to laugh as Mariah Carey’s voice started to play over the speakers:

_“I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need. I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know. All I want for Christmas is you…”_

It was perfect.

Perfect for their first date, a perfect summary of the last week, perfect descriptor of their feelings for each other.

And perfect for their first dance.

As the jingle bells began to play in the song, Keith turned to Allura with a formal bow. “May I have this dance?”

Allura grinned. “Of course.”

Keith grinned and took her hands as they started twirling and dancing and singing along.

Neither of them knew it, but they had each gotten exactly what they wanted for Christmas.

They got each other.


	7. Christmas Eve

Keith grinned as he opened his door for Allura, laden with grocery bags.

“Need any help?” He asked.

“Yes, there’s more bags in my trunk,” Allura said, passing him her car key. He nodded, slipped a pair of shoes on, then headed down the stairs. 

Allura smiled as he left, set down the bags then pulled out the red gift bag that she had hidden between bags of powdered sugar and butter. She quickly went over and set it underneath the tree, feeling rather pleased and excited. Even though Keith was coming over to her house to celebrate with her, her father and Coran, she wanted to put her gift for him under his tree. After all, what was the point of having a tree if you didn’t have a gift under it on Christmas morning?

She was unloading the groceries when Keith came back, setting his own bags on the counter.

“Alright, so what all are we baking today?” Keith asked, pulling out ingredients. “You said sugar cookies, mince pies, hot chocolate on a stick, and—” He pulled out a bottle of brandy and looked at her confused.

“That’s for the Christmas Cake. I think most Americans know it as a fruitcake,” Allura said. “And tomorrow when you come over, we’ll have mulled wine, red wine mixed with spices and served hot.”

“Is celebrating the season using this much alcohol a British thing, a your family thing, or a world-wide Christmas thing?” Keith asked.

“A combination thereof,” Allura said. “We’ll start with the hot chocolate on a stick, since that will need to sit in the refrigerator for a while to harden.”

They cranked up the Christmas music, and had fun baking together, flicking flour at each other and wiping chocolate-covered fingers off on each other’s noses. There were sugary kisses that were shared, and batter sampled, and quite a bit of dancing.

While the last of the sugar cookies baked, Keith helped Allura cut up strawberries and kiwis, which would top the Pavlova cake that Allura was going to make at her house.

“So, why is this cake called Pavlova? And what makes it different than the fruitcake, other than one has fruit on top and one has the fruit baked inside?” Keith asked.

“The Pavlova was invented in honor of the ballerina Anna Pavlova when she visited New Zealand, and it requires a lot more care in baking, as it is less of a cake and more like a meringue,” Allura explained. “It will deflate when exposed to the cold, so it usually has to cool inside the oven.”

“Thus why you’re making it at home, not here,” Keith said, shivering slightly as he glanced out the window, where it was raining and windy.

“Exactly,” Allura said. “Though I have my concerns, predominately because this is Coran’s recipe and I’ve never made it without him before. Father tried one year when Coran was laid up in bed with a broken ankle, and it did not go very well.”

“I’ve known Coran about as long as I’ve known you,” Keith said, thinking fondly of the zany English professor who also happened to be his advisor at the school they attended, as well as his shock when he learned that the girl he had a crush on was his advisor’s step-daughter. “And even if it doesn’t come out exactly right, he’ll eat it and love it.”

“I sure hope so,” Allura said. “If it doesn’t turn out well to the point of being inedible, then we’ll just have to make another one tonight when he gets home.”

“Oh yeah, when’s their flight coming in?” Keith asked, glancing at the clock on the microwave.

“Five o’clock,” Allura answered, smiling. “I can’t wait to have them home, the house has been so empty without them…”

Suddenly, Allura’s phone started ringing from inside her purse. She quickly wiped strawberry juice off her hands onto a towel and pulled out her phone, her face lighting up as she accepted the call. “Hello, Father!”

Keith smiled. Allura only used a very formal ‘Father’ when talking about or to her dad, but there was always so much love and fondness that came with it.

“Oh, I’m over at Keith’s, that’s why I didn’t pick up at home,” Allura said, leaning against the sink, still smiling. “Yes, we’re baking, we’ve got cookies in the oven right now and we made a Christmas Cake and mince pies… They are great, I can’t wait for you and Coran to come home and have some!”

Suddenly, Allura’s smile dropped, her brow furrowing, her shoulders sagging. “Wh-what?” She whispered. “Do they know how long it will be? Is there any other…?” She sighed, her eyes closed. “No, Father, no, it’s alright, I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay… Father, stop apologizing, you can’t control the weather…”

Keith could only watch as Allura pressed the heel of her hand to her eye, her face crumpling against her will. “Father, I have to go, I’m sorry, we can talk in a little bit. I love you, too. Give Coran my love.”

She hung up the phone and hung her head, taking hiccupping breaths.

“Allura?” Keith asked, coming over to her side. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s…” Allura sniffled slightly. “Father and Coran… They were supposed to fly out of Colorado, but the snow got too bad… The planes aren’t taking off, the roads are closed… They’re stuck. They can’t make it home for Christmas…”

“Oh,” Keith whispered. “’Lura…”

“I’m sorry,” Allura said, keeping her head bent down, pushing past him. “I… I need a moment…”

She left Keith standing in the kitchen, feeling completely useless and unsure how to make her feel better.

Allura hid in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, crying into her hands. On one hand, she felt silly for crying over something so stupid as the weather. She, her father and Coran would still celebrate Christmas even if it didn’t happen on December twenty-fifth.

But on the other hand… She’d be alone on Christmas for the first time ever. How she felt now… it reminded her of the first Christmas without her mother. That feeling of emptiness and loneliness and not-right. Her mother had loved Christmas so much, and every bit of her was there in every single bauble and star-shaped cookie and twinkling light. It hurt to see it all, hear it all, experience it all without her that first year. She had learned to cherish it, to know that her mother was there in spirit. But now she was doing it all over again; how could she go home and do that with everything, knowing that there were now three people she was experiencing Christmas without?

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Hey, Allura? Can I… can I come in?” Keith asked through the door.

Allura grabbed some toilet paper and dabbed at her eyes, still sniffling as she said, “Yes.”

She could use a hug right now…

Keith opened the door cautiously, and Allura saw that he held a plate with sugar cookies on them. He came and sat beside her on the side of the tub, plate on his lap. He picked up a cookie shaped like a Christmas tree. “Want one?”

Allura sniffled again and nodded, accepting the cookie. It was warm and soft in her mouth.

As she chewed, she watched Keith as he ate a cookie in silence. Her stomach suddenly churned. Oh. She hadn’t thought… Here she was crying over waking up on Christmas morning alone without her family when Keith had spent most of his life doing just that every year.

She swallowed the cookie as tears welled up in her eyes again. “I’m sorry…”

“For what?” Keith asked through a mouthful of sugar cookie.

“For acting like a child, storming off and crying,” Allura said.

Keith swallowed and shook his head. “You’re upset. You’re allowed to cry when you’re upset. And I get it. You don’t want to be alone on Christmas, and you were looking forward to your family being home.”

Allura’s stomach twisted. Keith had hit her feelings right on the head.

“Keith, I…” Allura’s voice trailed off. She didn’t know what to say, and was honestly more afraid that she’d just start crying again. Keith wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“You know how we got here?” Keith mumbled into her ear. “We got here, we got together, because I’m always alone on Christmas and don’t celebrate it with traditions and stuff. Well… Being alone on Christmas has always been my tradition, but I’m not going to let it become yours. I want to break with tradition and do something new.”

She shifted slightly and looked up at him curiously. Keith took both of her hands in both of his, staring into her eyes with a familiar determined look as he said: “Allura, I know what tradition I want to start, what I want to keep doing year after year. Everything this week we did together was new and fun and exciting. I want to do all of those things and more, but I don’t care if I do all of those things year after year. The only tradition I want each Christmas, is to spend it with you.”

Allura smiled and started crying again. This time, her tears were happy.

She wasn’t alone. She would never be alone, she just knew it…

“I want to make that a tradition, too,” She whispered.

Even as her tears streaked down her face, Keith kissed her, holding her close. She freed her hands to put them on his shoulders, fingers snaking around to the nape of his neck.

When they released each other, they pressed their foreheads together, simply smiling at each other. In that moment, there was peace and joy and love. And that was what Christmas was all about.

“All right,” Keith said, setting aside the plate, taking Allura’s hands. “I think this warrants an early Christmas present.”

“What?” Allura said, surprised as Keith led her out to the living room. “You… you got me a gift?”

“Of course I did,” Keith said, having her sit down on the couch. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

He ran down the hall, giving Allura enough time to grab her gift from under the tree, setting it on her lap. The look of surprise on Keith’s face at coming back to see her with the gift bag on her lap was adorably priceless.

“Merry Christmas?” She said shyly. “I wanted you to have a gift under the tree, but you can open this tomorrow, if you want.”

“No, let’s do this now,” Keith said, holding up a pink bag with gold tissue paper sticking out. “Another new tradition? We exchange gifts on Christmas Eve?”

Allura smiled. “I already think this tradition is a keeper.”

Keith sat opposite her and they exchanged gift bags.

“Should we open them together?” Allura asked. Keith shook his head.

“I want to see the look on your face,” He said. “You go first.”

Allura did, removing the golden paper and pulling out a ceramic mug. She laughed at what she read on the side.

“Like a quiznaking lady,” She said, grinning up at him. “Thank you, Keith, I love it! Now open yours!”

Keith’s grin was about as wide as her own as he looked at his new mug. “Perfect,” He proclaimed. “You know me too well. But, for the record, I don’t hate you.”

“I don’t hate you, too.” Allura assured him with a laugh. Then, she had an idea. “How about we try out those hot chocolate on a stick with our new mugs?”

“I like the sound of that,” Keith said. “Do you want to try the marshmallow or peppermint first?”

“Peppermint,” Allura said. “And some freshly baked cookies and mince pies on the side…”

And, with that, they proceeded to have one of the best Christmases ever.


	8. Epilogue: Five Years Later...

“Well lookie there,” Lance said, smirking at Allura and Keith, who had just happened to casually move across the room to sip their eggnog. “ _Someone_ found the mistletoe.”

“Again,” Pidge mumbled into her apple cider.

Keith grinned and looked at Allura and shrugged. “Ah, well, babe, might as well.”

“Tradition, and all that,” Allura said, returning his grin as he wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her fiercely.

“I’m starting to think they planned this,” Hunk said sarcastically, glancing around at the ceiling and the minefield of mistletoe.

“You think?” Pidge responded, just as sarcastically. She leaned against her husband, a hand on her belly—slowly getting rounder each day with her and Shiro’s firstborn—and said, “Hey, you two do know this is cruel, right? I can’t drink to forget you two making out every five seconds. Or at least make it bearable.”

“Pot meet kettle, Katie,” Matt called from across the room where he sat on the couch with his own mug of eggnog. “I’ve had to put up with you and Shiro pulling this same stunt every year for the last seven years, you know.”

“You’re the one who hung it over us the first time seven years ago, and at Thanksgiving.” Shiro reminded his brother-in-law, who rolled his eyes and mumbled something about a mistake.

To spite everyone—and because she wanted to—Allura kissed Keith again under the mistletoe. The night so far was going perfectly. It was three days until Christmas, and she and Keith were hosting their first holiday party together, and their first party in general in their new house. All of their friends were there, and Allura’s fathers, and some of their co-workers. The food was wonderful, the house looked beautiful, and everyone was in great spirits.

Everything was perfect.

Alfor gently clinked a knife against his glass, gathering everyone’s attention. He raised his glass and proclaimed, “A toast our wonderful hosts!” He smiled at Allura and said, “Allura, my daughter, I have loved you long before I could hold you in my arms. I am proud of the young woman you have become, my darling. And Keith, I have come to love you as if you were my own son. I have seen how happy you have made my daughter, and how happy my daughter makes you. I wish you many, many more years of that happiness.”

As everyone raised their glasses to toast their hosts, Alfor and Keith exchanged a secret, knowing glance.

Allura didn’t know it yet, but Keith had something big planned for them for the next night…

*****

“Alright, so what’s the surprise?” Allura asked as she got into the car after their dinner. It was their fifth anniversary as a couple, and Keith had promised her dinner with a surprise after, which she had spent the entire meal guessing, which seemed to amuse Keith.

“It’s a surprise, ‘Lura,” Keith said, squeezing her hand. “But I think you’ll like it…”

Allura was both surprised and confused when Keith pulled into the zoo parking lot, especially considering that they had gone with Hunk, Shay, and their one-year-old daughter the week before.

Then she remembered their first date… It was here… She smiled, both at the memory and that Keith was recreating their first date.

It was sweet, sweeter than the hot chocolate that Keith bought her once they were inside the gates

The displays hadn’t changed much since that first visit together, but it was still nice to wander around and share the time together, basked in the glow of Christmas lights and listening to instrumental versions of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and “Walking In a Winter Wonderland” over the zoo’s speaker system.

They were nearing the garden of flowers when Keith suddenly led her closer to them.

“Oh, look, they added some new flowers,” He said. “Are those lilies?”

Allura perked up at the mention of her favorite flower. She hadn’t been paying too much attention on their last visit, but now that she had more time and less distractions, she saw the white and bright pink displays of lilies.

“Ooh, and look, poppies!” She said, pointing at red flowers. “And Mums, and, oh, look at the sunflowers! And—”

She cut herself off as she heard a sudden change in the music, the Nutcracker Suite cut off mid note.

_“I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need. I don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know. All I want for Christmas is you…”_

The song they first danced to… Five years ago, on this very night, at this very zoo…

She turned to Keith, who grinned in a manner both shy and sly.

“Keith…” She whispered. “Did you… Did you have something to do with this?”

“These lights? No. The music?” His grin grew, a little more confident, as he took both of his gloved hands in both of hers, giving her hands a little squeeze. “Yes.”

Allura smiled, chuckling slightly. “Keith, you’re so sweet…”

Then, to her surprise, Keith dropped to the ground.

No, he dropped to one knee, a hand going into his jacket pocket.

“Keith?” She whispered, heart pounding. Holy quiznak, was Keith about…?

Keith took a deep breath and looked up at her, pulling a small black box out of his pocket. “Allura, the last five years we’ve been together… I have never, ever been so happy before. I told you five years ago that the only Christmas tradition I wanted to keep year after year was having you by my side. And I meant it then, and I mean it now. I know you’re the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with, the only one I want to spend every single Christmas with.”

Allura gasped, her fingertips pressed to her lips as Keith opened the small box, revealing a gold ring with pink stones and a small yellow stone set so that it resembled a flower.

“Allura, will you marry me?”

“YES!” Allura screamed, nodding her head excitedly. Keith grinned and stood up, and Allura threw her arms around his neck, kissing him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her, both laughing and smiling and kissing, tears streaming down their cheeks as other zoo visitors and workers cheered them on.

Later that evening, curled up on the couch next to Keith, a mug of hot chocolate on her knee, Allura smiled as she admired her ring.

“You like it?” Keith asked, resting his own mug of cocoa on his knee. It was the one she had given him their first Christmas together, just as the one she had a hand wrapped around was the one he had given her. “I know it’s not a traditional diamond, and if you don’t like it—”

“Keith, I love it, it’s perfect,” Allura said, beaming up at him. She kissed his cheek. “And I love you. You’re perfect.”

She liked watching his cheeks flush red. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

“I’m just happy you’re happy,” He told her. “I love it when you’re happy, I love your smile.”

“Good, because you’ll be seeing it every day for the rest of your life,” Allura said. “Along with my angry face, and my sad face, and my give-me-chocolate-or-die face…”

“Yeah, going to do my best to avoid those three,” Keith said, chuckling slightly.

Allura smiled and snuggled in deeper, adjusting the blanket sprawled across their laps.

“What do you think about a Christmas Eve wedding?” She asked.

Keith pressed another kiss to her temple and responded, “I think we better get moving, then. We’ve only got a year to plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!


End file.
